When You Were Young
by underthesun.88
Summary: One-shot spin-off to "Relationships". Deeks and Katie meet and instantly bond. It will help to read "Relationships", "Fish" and "First Date".


**When You Were Young**

SUMMARY: One-shot spin-offs to "Relationships". Deeks and Katie meet and instantly bond; follow the adventures of the future blond detective and the young girl who became his sister. It will help to read "Relationships", "Fish" and "First Date".

DISCLAIMER AND CHARACTER OWNERSHIP: I do not own NCIS: LA. I do, however, own all original characters mentioned in this story.

_Chance Meeting_

Nine-year-old Marty Deeks sat on the shores of Venice Beach and warily watched the sun travel across the sky. Luckily, he was sitting in the _perfect_ spot: in front of the sand dunes. His father would never find him, unless he looked. Which, if Deeks was being completely honest with himself, probably wouldn't happen. His father, John, was probably passed out on the living room sofa, still drunk from last night's poker game with his buddies. Marion, his mother, although tried to shield her son from the disaster that was their home life, was probably passed out herself in the master bedroom, empty painkiller bottles surrounding her. Shuddering slightly, Deeks focused his gaze on the ocean, jealous of the surfers as their bodies and surfboards cut through the ocean. For the past year, the young boy had been saving his petty change for a surfboard. He wasn't even close to the amount of money needed for a surfboard, but at least he was getting _somewhere._ His musings were cut short as a pink beach ball went flying past his head, with a little girl racing after it, running straight into the surf.

"Hey! Stop! Don't go into the water!" Deeks yelled, making the girl instantly stop. Running up towards her, he smiled slightly, "I'll get your ball for you. The ocean can get rough sometimes."

"Thank you." The girl replied, her long brown hair pulled back into two pigtails but her eyes were obscured by bangs that lay across her forehead.

Deeks waded into the water and began to swim towards the ball. Grabbing the toy, he paddled back towards land and threw the ball into the child's arms. "Here you go."

"Thanks _so_ much! That ball is the best one ever, cause it's pink. And it's sparkly. Do you like sparkles?" The little girl asked, finally pushing her bangs out of her face, revealing a pair of bright blue eyes.

"Sparkles are alright, I guess." Deeks answered, privately thinking that video games were much cooler. "So what's your name?"

"You're not a stranger, right?" The girl inquired, suddenly taking a step back from Deeks. "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers."

"I saved your ball, we're not strangers. I promise." Deeks told her, smiling at her again.

"I'm Katie Rivers," she said after a few moments, "and I'm five years old."

"I'm Marty Deeks, and I'm nine years old." Deeks responded. "Where are you parents?"

"That way." Katie told him, pointing up the beach to where a husband and wife were sitting under a large umbrella, chatting absentmindedly. "Sorry about the ball again. You wanna play with me?"

"Sure." Deeks answered her, realizing suddenly that Katie might have sent the ball into the ocean on purpose to get his attention, or at least to get a playmate. "You have any brothers or sisters?"

"No, just me and my Mommy and Daddy." Katie said as she kicked the ball towards him. "You ok?" She asked after a few moments, making Deeks almost fall over the ball in shock.

"Sorry?" Deeks asked, completely shocked that someone, a five-year-old no less, had asked him how _he_ was doing. Recovering quickly he nodded, "Yup, I'm fine."

"Ok." Katie said, kicking the pink toy back towards Deeks. Seconds passed before she looked up again. "You really ok? Cause you looked sad before."

Deeks didn't know how to respond to this child. Either was she really stubborn and was bugging him on purpose, or she was _way_ to aware about her surroundings. Throwing caution to the wind, he closed his eyes and chose his next words carefully. "My Mom and Dad fight, a lot."

Upon not hearing a response from Katie, he opened his eyes and found that she had run back to her parents. Frowning, Deeks turned away from the family, knowing he would never have a normal life like that. His thoughts were cut short at the sound of footsteps running towards him in the sand. Katie was standing before him, a chocolate and vanilla ice cream cookie in her hand. "For you: it will make you happy."

"Seriously?" Deeks questioned incredulously, eyeing the cookie as it began to melt in Katie's hand.

"Yeah." Katie said, nodding her hand vigorously, making her pigtails bob up and down. "Friends share their cookies."

"Thanks Katie." Deeks smiled, taking the cookie from her hand and breaking it into two pieces, he offered her the other half. "Friends share their cookies." Deeks echoed her previous statement.

LALALA

Later that evening, as the sun was setting, Deeks was watching Katie draw shapes in the sand. He actually really had enjoyed his day with her, her kind manners and occasional rants. Perhaps it was because Deeks didn't many friends, or maybe because it was his parents that were bringing him down everyday of his life, but he knew that he _had_ to maintain this friendship. "Katie!"

"Yeah?" Katie murmured, looking up from the large circle she had just drawn and was now filling with seashells.

"Want to be best friends?" Deeks questioned the brown haired girl, who looked completely confused at the presented question.

"You wanna be friends? No one ever wants to be friends with me." Katie whispered, looking hopefully at the blond boy standing before her.

"So that's a yes?" Deeks smiled, holding his arms out, his blond hair gleaming in the setting sun.

"Yes!" Katie squealed, diving into his arms for a hug, an act that she would mimic, for years to come.

LALALA

Hi all! Surprise! I thought I would try out this young Deeks/Katie story and see where these two take me. I'm sorry they don't speak completely childlike, but I'm trying my best. I realized that I messed up my math and made their ages wrong but let's just stick with these ages for this story. Anyway, Katie is still in her early twenties throughout "Relationships" and Deeks is in his early thirties. This is will be a shorter set of one-shots as my focus is still "Relationships" but I shall update this story when I can. Thank you for your reviews and lovely comments in advance!


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